Meade is offering thier LRGB filter set for $29.99 as part of thier first Weekly Deal. These were designed for imaging, but they also make fantastic visual filters. 4 interference filters for less than $10 per filter is crazy good.

Meade is offering thier LRGB filter set for $29.99 as part of thier first Weekly Deal. These were designed for imaging, but they also make fantastic visual filters. 4 interference filters for less than $10 per filter is crazy good.

A smokin deal !
They also have their 2" dielectric diagonal with a 1.25" adapter and the 24mm ultrawide eyepiece at $159.00 for both ! Crazy good eh ?

You couldn't. It's their first and, according to an email I've received from them yesterday, "every Thrusday we'll be posting and sending out an email with some amazing values." This deal ends on 01/30/12. FWIW, it also includes a small spotting scope, a desktop weatherstation with atomic clock and remote sensor, and a 28-piece microscope kit.

I originally posted this in the planetary observers forum since planetary observers seem to use more filters than most. The RGB interference filters make wonderful visual filters. Colored glass filters often pass broad spectral bands that peak in a particular color at a modest level of transmission giving filters that are red-ish, blue-ish, and green-ish. Interefence filters offer high transmission with sharply defined spectral bounds giving them very pure colors. I'll never forget the view of Venus through the blue RGB filter. I already have two sets of these; one for imaging and the other for visual. I only really needed the IR filter for one of my cameras, but I can always use another set!

I also bought one of the spotting scopes for my daughter who is learning to do bird counts with the local park district.

In order to get the weekly deal emails, do I need to sign up for a forum account?
I searched and could not find a way to sign up for those emails on the retail end of things there.

(I think I'm going to go for those filters though in the meanwhile! And oh, that 2" 2-fer 99% diag/24mm evil mushroom-grenade deal is SO tempting, but I must abstain! I am on a strict 1.25" diet here, and for a long time to be at that. Happy chunky observing to those who buy it! What deals..)

What kind of quality are the Meade RGB filters? It seems most other brands are in the $200-$500 range.

Can't speak for the optical quality of those Meade LRGB filters, but I can tell you that they are Meade DSI camera filters. Those DSI camera R, G and B filters are not IR-blocked. The L filter in the set is IR-blocked, and in order to get proper color balance you have to use that L filter in-line with the others.

Each filter in an LRGB set from Astrodon, Astronomik, Baader, Custom Scientific, and Hutech are properly IR-blocked. There are also probably a few other brands that I can't think of, and probably some rebranded filters that are IR-blocked.

I thought that for the money (even new) they were pretty good. As John mentioned, they're not IR blocking, but for me thast wasn't a big deal as I use my light pollution filter which is IR blocking as an IR pre-filter. For visual it's a non-issue.

This is the transmission spectra of the filters without an IR blocking filter...

Attached Files

As a bonus, if you use either the Hutech IDAS LPS2 or Orion Imaging Skyglow filter as the IR pre-filter they knock a couple of holes in the red response bringing it into pretty good ballance with the blue and green. Not bad for a $30 set of filters.

Just curious if anyone, that has ordered from their weekly deals, received a shipping confirmation yet. I ordered last Friday, CC had pending charge for 3 days and has now dropped off completely. Maybe I'm just overly impatient.

I was wondering the same thing, but it seems that the web updates are trailing the actual shipments, so hopefully it won't be long. I've ordered a set of filters, a spotting scope, and an eyepiece. There isn't any clear weather in the forecast at the moment anyway.

The last time I ordered from Meades site was a couple close out items and as I recall , notification did leave a lot to be desired , though I did receive what I ordered . I believe they use a third party company that handles this stuff . They need improvement on communication IMO .

Thanks for the replies. Over the past 90 minutes, I did receive a shipping notice. I ordered the diagonal and eyepiece combo. I ordered the APM for my LX80 also from them and didn't remember how long it took.